29 Jan 2013

Tilen Genov and Tina Centrih from Morigenos have recently successfully completed their Master of Research degrees at the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom. They both graduated with Distinction and received prizes for their thesis presentations. Tilen was awarded a title Master of Research in Marine Mammal Science, while Tina was awarded a title Master of Research in Environmental Biology. Tilen's course was held within the Sea Mammal Research Unit, one of world's leading centres in marine mammal research.

University of St Andrews, Scotland's first university and the third oldest in English-speaking world, is celebrating it's 600th anniversary in 2013. Due to its teaching and research quality, it is rated as the top Scottish university and one of top universities in the UK. It also has a worldwide reputation and therefore hosts students from all over the world. In its publication “Science sees further”, the Royal Society identified research at University of St Andrews as among the most likely to shape science in the 21st century. The Morigenos team is very proud and congratulates Tina and Tilen for their achievements.

19 Jan 2013

We are very sad to report that a dolphin was caught in a fishing net off the town of Izola, Slovenia, earlier today. A young female got entangled in a fishing net, likely due to inexperience while foraging or playing around it. Unfortunately she died before fishermen came to collect their nets, so they could not help her. We carried out an initial external examination of the dolphin, more will be known after the autopsy. Interactions between dolphins and fisheries are common worldwide. They are often negative for both parties involved. Dolphins may take caught fish from the net and damage the nets, but they can also get entangled and drown. It is therefore important to seek solutions together with the fishermen. In some areas of the world interactions are also positive, where fishermen and dolphins work together to catch fish. Many fishermen are well aware that dolphins are an important part of a healthy ecosystem. Morigenos cooperates closely with several Slovenian fishermen, which often report their dolphin sightings to us. We are very glad that they notified us about the entangled dolphin, rather than discarding it, and thus contributed important information. Even such sad events can provide information that will hopefully enable such cases to be avoided in the future and lead to an improved conservation of dolphins in the long term.

12 Jan 2013

In the
early afternoon today we received a call, that a Mediterranean Shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis desmarestii) has been caught in the fishing net
by Pacug. Ana Hace from Morigenos and Gorazd Lazar, our long time colleague and
friend from Aquarium Piran and a local fisherman, responded to the call. The
shag’s wing and legs were badly entangled. After some twisting around it also
entangled its head a bit. Luckily, it was rescued without injuries. We hope
it’ll stay away from the nets after this experience.

7 Jan 2013

We took advantage of nice January days to do the first fieldwork of the year. Yesterday, after spotting Mediterranean shags, shearwaters and bluefin tunas, we encountered a group of 30 dolphins, not far from Piran. The encounter was a very special one, because we quickly recognised several well known fins. Bananko, Paolo and Lovrenc were the first dolphins to be recognised. Soon after, we spotted other »old friends«. There were Daphne, Emanuela, Amanita, Foki, Kai, Deinon and Sergio, which we see every year, as well as Hidro and Tarja, which we haven't seen since 2008. Apart from these familiar fins, we also saw some new ones. There were several calves in the group, and they were particularly playful. They enjoyed bowriding in front of our boat and jumping around it. They continuously vocalised while doing that, and we could hear their whistles through the boat hull. This year, Emanuela's calf will be three and Daphne's calf will be two years old, while Tarja introduced her new baby. We were glad to see that all the calves appeared healthy, which is very important for the population.

We also headed out to sea today and found another group containing eight adult dolphins. They were busy foraging, so they did not show much interest in us. To avoid unnecessary disturbance, we left the group after collecting the most important data. Apart from dolphins, we had a magnificent view of the beautiful Julian Alps of Slovenia in the background. The year started off really well and we hope to see much more of our friends this year.